Bush Tomato Chutney

Easy·25 min active + 35 min resting

A tangy-sweet relish built on the kutjera bush tomato — the sun-dried native desert raisin with its tangy, caramel-and-tamarillo note — cooked down with onion, vinegar, and sugar into a dark, jammy chutney for kangaroo, cheese, and damper.

Bush tomato (kutjera, Solanum centrale) is a sun-dried native desert fruit with a tangy caramel flavour, used in relishes and spice blends.

A spoon of bush tomato chutney is dark, jammy, and tangy-sweet, the kutjera giving a deep caramel-and-tamarillo tang quite unlike a garden tomato, sharpened with vinegar. Bite: rich, fruity, and sweet-sour, with an exotic dried-fruit depth, the perfect foil to lean kangaroo or a sharp cheese. A native-Australian condiment with real character.

Sun-dried bush tomatoes have a concentrated, raisin-like tang and caramel depth; rehydrating and slow-cooking them with vinegar and sugar makes a balanced sweet-sour chutney where the native fruit leads. Long simmering melds and darkens it into a keepable relish.

Variations

Spicier (with chili). With native pepperberry. Chunkier. Sweeter. With macadamia. As a glaze.

On the Palate

Where Bush Tomato Chutney sits in the Aboriginal Australian flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 12

How it's made

8 steps · 25 min active + 35 min waiting

1
10 min
Soak a handful of dried bush tomatoes (kutjera) until softened; chop.
Watch out
Soak the dried bush tomatoes until they plump and go pliable — still leathery and they stay tough and won't release their tang.
2
6 min
Soften chopped onion in a little oil in a pot.
3
3 min
Add chopped fresh tomato and the bush tomato.
4
2 min
Add vinegar, sugar, and salt.
5
35 min
Simmer gently 35 min, stirring, until dark and jammy.
Watch out
Simmer until it darkens and a spoon dragged across the base leaves a track that doesn't flood back — that's jammy, not watery.
6
2 min
Mash to the texture you like.
7
3 min
Cool; it thickens further.
8
1 min
Spoon over kangaroo, cheese, or damper.